


OUT at the Ballgame

by Wolves_of_Innistrad



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Baseball, Bisexuality, Coming Out, Family Fluff, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Gay Panic, M/M, Pre-Slash, Pride, Surprise Kissing, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-26 20:35:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,503
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21380209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolves_of_Innistrad/pseuds/Wolves_of_Innistrad
Summary: When Hen gives Eddie the baseball tickets she doesn't mention that they had planned on going on Pride night.  Of course that might be the least of Eddie's worries with a burgeoning sexuality crisis, a host of LGBT families and one unforgettable Kiss cam.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz
Comments: 112
Kudos: 918





	OUT at the Ballgame

When Hen shoves the tickets in Eddie’s hands last minute he doesn’t get to ask much beyond “What are these?”

  
“Baseball tickets. Got them for Karen and Denny and I but, well, shit came up.”

  
Eddie looks at the tickets then back to Hen. “These are really good seats…”

  
The look Hen gives him says more than her words. “I know.”

  
“Sure you won’t be able to make it?”

  
“Definitely not. I don’t want them to go to waste though, thought you could take Christopher.”

  
“Tha-”

  
“And Buck.”

  
That makes Eddie pause. He’s forgiven Buck for all the drama, and they are back to being friends, but a day out with him seems a little more daunting than it would have last month.

  
“No buts Eddie. That boy needs a little fun and relief after all he’s been through. All three of you do.”

  
Eddie starts to say something but decides against it, nodding and smiling.

  
“Thanks Hen.”

  
“Don’t mention it. Have fun.”

  
“We Will!”

  
He waits until later to talk to Buck, avoiding it like the coward he’s apparently turned into. Finally, knowing he needs to do this before Buck makes plans or Hen finds out he’s a chicken he swallows his pride, sighs and heads over to Buck.

  
“Hey Buck.”

  
Buck looks up at the sound of his voice, a smile instantly passing over his face, albeit still a bit apprehensive.

  
“H-hey Eddie.”

  
He’s packing up, shift over and Eddie’s glad he caught him honestly. 

  
“So, uh, Hen had some baseball tickets and, well, they can’t make it anymore so she gave them to me.”

  
“That’s great!” Buck pats him on the arm, though it’s clear by his expression he isn’t sure what this has to do with him.

  
“Well, uh, I thought you could come with us. Me and Christopher?”

  
It’s then Eddie realizes how different the smile Buck gave him before is, because this time it seems to engulf his entire face, lighting up his eyes in a way that makes Eddie feel like he’s staring at the sun.

  
“You want me to come with you guys?”

  
His voice is so hopeful and happy that Eddie can’t bear to say Hen all but forced him to do it. And in that moment as he nods and Buck grins and shakes his head up and down like a golden retriever Eddie forgets why he was so worried about this.

  
It’s just Buck. Buck his best friend.

  
Buck nearly jumps on him giving him a hug. Eddie winces, but tries not to flinch away like the last time, he doesn’t need Buck to notice his sore body.

  
Luckily, Buck’s too distracted with the idea of going to the game with the Diaz family to notice because he bounds out of the station with more pep in his step than Eddie’s seen in months.

Christopher is, of course, overjoyed.

  
Not so much about the tickets themselves, he doesn’t care too much either way about the game. 

  
But a day with Buck?

  
Christopher doesn’t stop talking about it the entire day.

  
Or the next, or any of them really until its the day of the game.

When Buck arrives he runs over, picking Christopher up and swinging him around for a big hug.

  
“I missed you buddy!”

  
“I missed you too Bucky!”

  
Something pulls in Eddie’s chest when he sees it, its something he’s been noticing for a while, and after the tsunami even more, but then with everything that had happened with Buck after he’d kind of forgotten the way his stomach kind of swooped as he watched Buck so effortlessly show affection for his son, so genuinely enthused to be around him.

  
Eddie didn’t bother looking anything up about the tickets, so he doesn’t notice anything different about the mess of fans swarming into the stadium along with them. At least not at first.

  
It’s only when the fifth rainbow flag passes by him that it starts to click, just the tiniest bit. His eyes scan the crowd and there’s the usual fans milling about, talking and laughing or running off to the bathroom or their seats, but there’s also a ton of families.

  
Families that look a lot like his family right now.

  
2 men are swinging their daughter, he assumes at least, between them, they both have on Dodgers jerseys with a rainbow color scheme. Another two men kiss briefly before one runs off to the concession stand. 2 women and their three children are waiting in line to buy funnel cake. Another 2 and their son are carrying beers while their son swings a memorial foam finger around.

  
His throat feels dry as he stares back at Buck and Christopher who are walking back towards him. Christopher is riding on Buck’s shoulders, a little Dodger’s hat on his head that has a rainbow on the side.

  
“Where’d you get that buddy?” Eddie asks, just to have something to say because his mind is kind of reeling from how this must look to everyone else.

  
“Bucky bought it for me! Isn’t the rainbow pretty!” Christopher swings the hat around wildly, giggling like mad.

  
Buck’s looking up to him, hands braced on either side of him to make sure he doesn’t fall and Eddie sees it, how clearly from the outside they look like every other couple here with their kid. He doesn’t know how to describe the feeling he gets, so he tries not to think of it.

  
Fumbling with his wallet he grabs a couple bills. “How much was the hat?”

  
Buck shakes his head, pushing the wallet away, his hand resting over Eddie’s for just a moment and sending a jolt up the older man’s arm.

  
“Don’t worry about it, it’s my gift to Chris for not seeing him for awhile. Sorry about that again buddy.”

  
“It’s okay Buck. I missed you.”

  
“I missed you too Chris. SO much.”

  
Eddie has to turn away because his stomach feels like it’s full of butterflies and he really doesn’t know what the fuck is going on with him today. He tells himself its just the weirdness of the entire situation. 

  
That’s all it is.

  
It has to be.

  
“So uh, let’s get to our seats, yeah?”

  
Eddie leads them down to their seats, which he still can’t believe are this good. He’s going to really have to thank Hen after this.

  
They pass quite a few more gay and lesbian couples, and others that he thinks might be straight ones before seeing little flags in different colors on them that he doesn’t quite recognize all of them.

  
They take a seat, Christopher in between them and Eddie smiles, taking a breath of the fresh air, looking up at the sky and then back to Chris. To Buck. His boys.

  
He doesn’t know where the thought comes from but it makes him smile, and when Buck turns towards him, he smiles too.

  
If Buck has noticed anything odd about the huge amount of LGBT couples and their kids he hasn’t said anything, and Eddie’s at least glad for that. Of course, Hen bought these tickets so it wouldn’t be on Eddie anyway he reassures himself.

  
But then again, Eddie questions why he feels like he would even need to reassure himself if there’s nothing abnormal about any of this. It’s just him and his best friend taking his son to a baseball game.

  
The fact it must be, like, Pride night or something doesn’t mean anything.

  
He’s certain of it.

  
They laugh and chat, explaining some things to Christopher, when Eddie’s thoughts get a bit too uncomfortable he excuses himself to go grab them some drinks and food.

  
As he’s walking towards the concession stand, which is pretty crowded with lines snaking down the interior hallway, one of the merch booths catches his eye.

  
He stops for a moment, not sure why since he doesn’t really want to buy any of this overpriced stuff. He feels pulled towards a board with a bunch of enamel pins on it and he realizes this is where all those people with the flags must have gotten them.

  
He’s not sure why he keeps looking, but up close he can tell it’s not exactly a flag, or rather it is, but instead of a flagpole the flag is hanging from a baseball bat. He sees the rainbow one which he recognizes, but there are so many others. A blue, pink and white one that he remembers seeing someone wearing earlier, a mostly black and gray and white one, a couple weird ones that look like a desertscape and a police flag, but they have strange animal symbols and a heart on them.

  
Then he notices underneath they say what they are and he goes back and rereads them. He’s not really sure what it means under the Bear and Leather ones, or really half of them if he’s honest, but as he keeps scanning his eyes stop one and he feels his stomach clench.

  
He’s seen it before, he can’t quite remember where, but he knows he has. The little pink, purple and blue lines seem so straight, even if he mentally laughs at the way that sounds. His fingers reach out, wanting to touch it, feel it beneath his fingertips but he stops at the last moment, not sure why he should do that.

  
Bisexual.

  
That’ s what the little sign under the flag says, he stares at it, maybe for a bit too long.

  
“Bisexual.”

  
He hears the words, and for a moment he thinks he’s said them himself before there’s a hand pointing past him.

  
“Sorry man, but yeah, I want a bi flag for my boyfriend, and then a gay one for me. Thanks.” The voice comes from a shorter guy beside him. His skin is deep and dark, he gives the guy a bright smile as he passes him his card back and forth before taking the pins with him.

  
Eddie follows him with his eyes, watching him walk over to a veritable tower of muscle. The second guy, his boyfriend he guesses, picks him up and spins them both around after he’s been given the pin. Eddie looks away when they start kissing, not sure why he’s stared so long. When he passes by them on the way to the concessions he sees they’re putting the flag pins on their jerseys and he shakes his head.

  
Get it together Diaz, he thinks.

  
Once he has the food he takes it back, both relieved and weirdly disappointed he doesn’t see the two guys from before anywhere around. Eddie shakes it off, walking back to his seats, seeing Chris yelling along with Buck, albeit a moment or two after, taking his cues from the man.

  
He laughs, grinning as he slides into his seat and passes them their food. Christopher immediately starts eating his mini donuts out of the little hard plastic baseball cap they’re sold in. It was stupidly expensive, but he figured Chris would be excited to keep it as a memento.

  
When he looks over to Buck his eyes are on the game, taking his hot dog and putting it to his mouth. Eddie chuckles as he watches Buck shove far too much of into his mouth before finally biting. He’s surprise the man doesn’t choke.

  
And then his eyes shift sideways towards a guy sitting a seat down from Buck who’s staring at Buck like he wants to devour Him.

  
Eddie narrows his eyes at the guy, giving him a royal stink face and once the guy notices he puts his hands up, flushing and turning away in embarrassment.

  
A little surge of pride or satisfaction flows through Eddie and he’s not sure why. He studiously ignores that seeing that guy so openly staring at Buck felt a little like jealousy.

  
But that’s stupid.

  
So stupid.

  
He just didn’t want Buck to feel weird or uncomfortable.

  
Not that Buck had even noticed or probably would have, his eyes seem to only go from the game to Christopher, although as he’s staring at Buck, and he can admit he is staring now, the man turns to him and gives him a quizzical look.

  
“D’I got sumfing on my face?” Buck says with a too full mouth and Eddie cracks up.

  
“Yeah Buck a bit of mustard.”

  
Buck wipes at his mouth with his wrist but doesn’t get it.

  
“Nope.”

  
Again Buck wipes, and once more and neither time does he manage to eradicate the stray topping.  
Eddie sighs, taking pity on his idiot best friend and reaches over, swiping his finger over Buck’s chin, his thumb catching for just a moment’ on Buck’s bottom lip and tugging at it.

  
It’s only when he meets Buck’s eyes, or rather notices that Buck won’t meet his, cheeks subtly pinking that he realizes that was kind of weird.

  
Do friends wipe the other’s mouths?

  
Is that a thing bros do?

  
God he hopes so. He really, really hopes that’s a totally normal thing that guys do.

  
After that Eddie busies himself with his own food, with Christopher who needs to go to the restroom after a while, and later with grabbing some peanuts from a vendor that’s yelling what he thinks might be a bit more suggestive slogans than is entirely necessary.

  
Buck of course has laughed at every one of them which makes Christopher and then Eddie laugh like a domino effect.

  
In fact Eddie’s almost forgot about the weirdness of earlier, getting out of his head and just enjoying the game, enjoying this day with what are honestly two of his favorite people.

  
And that’s when he hears Christopher squeal between them and he looks down to see Chris frantically pointing up at the big screen.

  
“What?”

  
“We’re on TV!”

  
That makes Buck and Eddie both look up, noticing at the same time what’s currently on the hugest screen in the stadium.

  
It’s a camera zoomed in on Eddie and Buck and Christopher, and there’s a big rainbow colored heart overlayed on top of the image that surrounds all three of them.

  
Eddie, quite frankly, wants to murder Hen in that moment.

  
He turns to Buck and sees him blushing furiously, and he’s at least thankful someone is as embarrassed as he is.

  
And then the chanting starts up.

  
“Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss!” It feels like it’s coming from everywhere all at once, he flicks his head back to the screen and it’s still on them, waiting.

  
Oh God it’s waiting for them to kiss.

  
For him and Buck,

  
To kiss.

  
On live TV in front of thousands and thousands of people.

  
“Kiss, kiss, kiss!” Christopher chants now between them, joining in with the rest of the stadium. With seemingly the entire world it feels like.

  
His eyes turn to Buck and he expects to see that same embarrassment, maybe even anger, but instead Buck just smiles, laughing.

  
Then Buck shrugs and grabs Eddie by the front of his jersey, dragging him into a passionate kiss.

  
Eddie’s entire world stops, sound rushing out, eyes closed, and it feels like the only thing that exists in the world is Buck’s lips pressed against his, the hand that’s snaked up to cup his cheek.

Then the sound comes back in like the tides, a roaring crowd clapping and still all he feels is Buck.

  
Buck Buck Buck.

  
He kisses back, maybe a bit more eagerly than he intends to because this is the best thing he’s felt in years.

  
God he forgot how good it felt to kiss someone.

  
To kiss someone you really cared about.

  
And it’s right as that thought passes through his head that Buck let’s him go, Eddie collapsing into a puddle of goo in his seat.

  
Faintly he hears more whoops and catcalls, out of the corner of his eye he sees someone clapping Buck on the shoulder from behind. Eddie’s mind is having trouble processing hat just happened, he feels like he’s drowning in endorphins though, his stomach bottomed out like he just went on a roller coaster.

  
When he can finally move his head he turns to Chris, needing to check on him, to make sure that he isn’t freaking out, but he’s just, sitting there laughing and smiling.

  
“Hey daddy! We were on TV!”

  
“Yeah… Yeah we were kiddo…”

  
Eddie feels breathless, he looks over at Buck and notices he’s staring at the field, or trying to anyway, his eyes slide towards him but as soon as he notices Eddie is watching him he casts them back out to the field.

  
There’s a blush high on Buck’s cheeks.

  
Eddie can’t believe that just happened.

  
In fact, by the end of the game, after the fireworks have gone off, to Christopher and Buck’s utter delight, he almost thinks that maybe it was all some kind of dream or trick of his imagination.

  
That is until he feels someone tapping him on the shoulder as they’re waiting for some of the crowd to die down before chancing taking Christopher out of the stands.

  
“Hey, I thought you should have this. It turned out really well.”

  
The woman is smiling serenely, her hair is graying and she’s got a camera around her neck and another in her other hand. IN the hand held out to Eddie there’s a photo, one of those instant ones, but a really good quality one he can tell just by glancing at it.

  
“Me?” He says, a little confused.

  
“Yes, you and your partner and son just looked so… Adorable, I couldn’t resist, I hope that’s alright.”

  
He takes the proffered photo, and there it is in brilliant color. Buck kissing Eddie, their lips locked together, a look of utter bliss on both of their faces. Just beneath them is Chris with his head bent back screaming or laughing, clearly overjoyed. And in the far back is the big picture on the screen, partially obscured, but just enough to see the opposite angle of them that everyone else saw.

  
Eddie’s breath leaves him for a moment and before he can say anything a second woman is at the other’s side.

  
She’s about the same age, but her hair is done up differently, or was before the heat of the day had messed with it.

  
“We have to go honey or we’ll be stuck in even worse traffic.

  
“Alright I’m coming, I just wanted these wonderful boy to have that photo.”

  
They leave and all Eddie can do is shout “Thank you!” to them after they’re already halfway up the stairs.

  
The woman stops and gives him a little wave before leaving with her partner.

  
“Well that… was a wild game.”

  
“Yeah, it really was.” Buck is smirking now, and since when did Buck’s smirk make Eddie’s mind stop working.

  
Probably when he learned what it felt like to be kissed within an inch of his life by Evan Buckley.

  
“You have a good game buddy?” Buck is conversing with Christopher as the rest of the stands empty out into the hallways and lobbies.

  
“Best day EVER!!!” Christopher yells, laughing and smiling.

  
Buck and Eddie share a glance, Buck biting his lip, Eddies eyes drawn to them before he breaks away.

  
“Well let’s, uh, get going, yeah?”

  
“Yeah, yeah.”

  
They have to wait in a crazy line just to get out of the stands, and as they’re finally breaking into the main area he spots the same vendor from before, or just another selling the same things, he can’t be certain.

  
His eyes catch on the pins again and his mind is chanting at him not to do this, that it’s stupid, that he can’t take this back if he does it.  
But his heart is just aching to touch the one from before. 

  
“Can I have one of these?”

  
“Which one you want?”

  
Eddie turns, sees Buck coming towards him carrying a dozing Christopher who’s worn out by now.

  
“The, uh, the bisexual one?” Eddie’s certain his voice raises two octaves as he says it, but he doesn’t back down. His eyes meet Buck’s and there’s recognition there, but no reproach, no disgust.

  
Buck stands besides him, their eyes locked on each other, and as the man’s reaching for the pin Buck says “can you make that two Bisexual pins?”

  
Eddie feels a grin splitting his lips.

  
Buck smiles at him, and he realizes it’s one he’s never seen before. It’s shy, private.

  
Just for him.

  
And really, the fact he knows Buck’s different smiles maybe should have clued him into some things before this.

  
Buck puts the pin on Eddie’s shirt, and Eddie puts the pin he bought on Buck’s baseball cap. He’s reminded of the two men that he saw before doing a similar ritual and he can’t help but smile.

  
When they walk out of the baseball stadium they look like any other family there.

  
Right down to their interlocked hands as they head to the car.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all love this because I ADORE it so much.
> 
> As always a big thanks to all my Wonderful Readers for the comments, kudos and subs!


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